London Triathlon Training Guidelines: Cycle

28th August 2012

The Triathlon Plus team prepare for their relay at the London Triathlon.

Editor, Liz Hufton will take on the 40km cycle at the London Triathlon. Liz already cycles regularly and with the help of a training plan set by Phil Mosley, is aiming for an olympic distance bike PB.

Liz Hufton:

“Currently I’m riding three or four times and swimming three times per week. I’ve got a long term hip injury, so I’m not able to run at the moment. I alternate one day of swimming with one day of cycling, as that reduces the stress on my hip. Most of my rides are on my own, up to about an hour in the week and a bit longer at weekends. My aim at the London triathlon is to cycle sub-1:18, as this would be a new Olympic distance bike PB for me. The only problem I have is that I lose concentration during a race and find myself day dreaming. I think I could ride faster if I maintained my focus. I have a Polar bike computer with heart-rate but I’ve never had time to set it up.”

Coach Phil says:

Liz is already bike-fit, so that’s a great starting point. She just needs to maintain her current level of training and bring in some specific race pace efforts to help her set a new PB. As well as this, I’ve set her a 2-hour ride at weekends to give her more confidence in her endurance. It’s also well worth including a couple of low-key 10 or 25 mile cycle time trials during this 6-week period. Think of them as training, and don’t sweat the times.

I’ve prescribed her training sessions by heart-rate and rate of perceived exertion, although she needn’t worry about being super-accurate with these. The aim is merely to distinguish between easy, medium and hard intensities.

Although she is training for the bike section of the London Triathlon, I’ve set her the same swimming sessions as her team-mate Adam in the hope that they might be able to train together. She likes to train every day, but gets a sore hip if she cycles too much. These swim sets will add some structure and progression, which should help keep her motivated.